U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that those responsible for the deliberate starvation of Madaya’s townspeople must face justice.
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Condemning Syria’s “barbaric” sieges, the United Nations demanded Friday immediate access to besieged towns to deliver food, medicine and other life-saving aid to civilians facing starvation.
Aid agencies entered Madaya with a convoy on Thursday to deliver desperately-needed humanitarian aid, in a second such operation this week.
“He’s gone”, the doctor said quietly, announcing the death of 16-year-old Ali of starvation in the basement of a makeshift clinic in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya.
Indeed, while aid was delivered to Madaya this week, it was simultaneously sent to Foua and Kefraia, two villages in northern Idlib province that have been encircled by rebels.
Aid officials hoped to bring in more supplies, with fuel deliveries set for Sunday, according to Stillhart.
Ms Tom said OCHA was also advocating putting a medical team inside Madaya to treat people.
The siege of Madaya, where people have reportedly died of starvation, has become a focal issue for Syrian opposition groups who want all such blockades lifted before they enter negotiations with the government planned for January 25.
She recalled that for more than four years, the humanitarian community has sounded the alarm about the impact of Syria’s conflict on ordinary men, women and children.
The United Nations says there are some 450,000 people trapped in around 15 siege locations across Syria, including in areas controlled by the government, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other insurgent groups.
Syrian ally Russian Federation complained that much attention was focused on Madaya, with Deputy Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov saying “not a word” was said about the other towns under rebel siege.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today confirmed cases of severe malnutrition among children in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, where “emotionally distressed and mentally drained” doctors are working around the clock to save lives with very limited resources and local relief workers have reported 32 people have starved to death in the past month.
“The people we met in Madaya were exhausted and extremely frail”, Singer said. Madaya is a rebel-held town being besieged by government forces; Fua and Kafraya are held by the government and besieged by rebels.
More than 260,000 people have died in Syria’s conflict, which began in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has evolved into a multi-sided civil war. “We continue to review additional claims of civilian casualties and will provide additional information in the future”, Central Command said in a statement.
The U.N. Security Council will be briefed on Friday on the besiegement of some 400,000 people in Syria, according to Reuters.
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Both government and rebel forces are using such tactics in Syria. He urged key regional and world powers, specifically the International Syria Support Group, to press Syria’s warring parties for sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access and an end to the use if indiscriminate weapons in civilian areas.
